Another downbeat ADP jobs report pressured markets

US private employment data from the ADP showed a rise in employment of 117K in February compared to 195K a month earlier. Since June last year, the figure has been weaker than analysts’ expectations 8 out of 10 times, reflecting a softer than expected employment recovery pace.

For the US, employment growth of around 200K a month keeps the unemployment rate at the same level due to new hiring. Since December, however, we see that the labour market is not recovering and continues to lag behind the natural trend.

Although in previous months, disappointing data from ADP was ignored by the markets, this time, the index futures increased their decline after the publication. The Nasdaq100 has fallen back below 13000, losing 1.5% from the intraday high at the start of European trading.

As we have often seen in the last few days, the Dow Jones was much more modest, losing 0.7%. In the foreign exchange market, demand for the dollar as a middle ground between overseas markets and US Treasuries, whose yields have become more attractive in the last month, returned to early trading.

The FxPro Analyst Team